Tanning: An Overview

Since the late 1970s, the practice of tanning in the United States has increased in popularity. Everyone loves the healthy-looking, golden tan acquired from exposure to ultraviolet light; therefore, it is highly unlikely that tanning will ever go out of style.

With each year that passes, tanning enthusiasts, as well as salon owners and operators, have much more knowledge about the tanning process and its overall effect on the skin. Consumers continue to become more educated about skincare and tanning and demand higher-quality products and services for their money. In order to keep up with their demands, salon owners and operators must stay abreast of the newest trends in equipment and products and have a firm grasp on the most-effective marketing and customer services practices.

Above all, salon owners should make it a priority to educate clients about achieving a tan in a sensible, moderate and responsible manner. By enforcing this at the salon level, we can keep our customers looking great with a healthy-looking tan.

The solar radiation reaching the earth can be broken down into rays of varying wavelengths. The light that can be seen with the unaided eye is called the visible spectrum and is made up of rays between 400 nanometers and 780 nanometers (nm) in length. (A nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter.) Just more than 50 percent of light that reaches the earth’s surface falls into this range. Most of the remainder is called infrared light, which are rays longer than 780 nm.

About one-twentieth of the sun’s light that reaches the earth is of a shorter wavelength than the visible spectrum. It is this fractional amount, the ultraviolet light, that results in the phenomena known as suntanning and sunburning. The ultraviolet radiation is further broken down into three types—UVA (320 nm-400 nm), UVB (280 nm-320 nm) and UVC (100 nm-280 nm).

Solar radiation in the UVC range is absorbed almost entirely by the carbon dioxide and ozone in the atmosphere. This is fortunate, considering that even short exposure to any quantity of UVC is very harmful to the eyes and causes severe sunburn.

The sun is not the only source that emits rays such as ultraviolet and infrared; lamps also are capable of emitting rays. Techniques have been discovered to permit lamps to radiate relatively more UV or IR (infrared radiation). These lamps are developed specifically for tanning and emit radiation with a spectrum in which the required ultraviolet is present in abundance. The desired type of radiation can be further achieved by using filters to eliminate the unwanted rays.

The process of tanning depends upon the energy supplied in the form of UV radiation and the time during which it takes place. The amount of radiation energy administered is known as the dose.

Radiation dose is the primary factor in determining how rapidly the skin will tan. However, several other factors also need to be considered. First, the type of skin to be radiated is important because tender, fair skin reacts very differently to radiation than does darkly pigmented skin. Wavelength is also an essential factor. As mentioned earlier, the skin reacts more dramatically to the short UVB rays than to the UVA which have a longer wavelength.

The objective of radiation equipment is to radiate skin with an irradiance level that is needed at a particular distance to achieve the biological effect known as tanning.